A Powell man has been sentenced to prison for possessing materials used for manufacturing small quantities of methamphetamine back in 2016.

Joshua Lucus, 32, was handed a three- to five-year sentence by District Court Judge Bill Simpson on Thursday for a felony count of possessing equipment or supplies with the intent to engage in a clandestine lab operation.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Leda Pojman asked the court to impose a five- to seven-year prison sentence. Lucus’ court-appointed attorney, Travis Smith, requested a term of supervised probation.

Because of Lucus’ criminal record, Simpson said he would be “derelict in my duties” if he didn’t impose prison time. Calling methamphetamine “perhaps one of the most destructive controlled substances I’ve ever seen,” the judge told Lucus that “it’s almost destroyed you.” He asked Lucus to see the sentencing as a life-changing event.

“If you don’t, the future is predictable — and it’s going to be bad,” Simpson said. “If you hear what I’m telling you, ... I think you’re going to see that I’m giving you a chance. But at the same time, I’m making you accountable.”

During his statement to the court, Lucus expressed his desire for recovery from addiction. He said the 10 months he’s spent in the county detention center since his April arrest represented his longest stretch of sobriety in a decade.

“Now, being sober is not just a necessity, it’s an obsession,” Lucus told the court. “When you go to your first AA or NA meeting, you get a little token on a keychain. ... The one thing I’ve always had my eye on is that one-year token that those guys get. Knowing that I’m that close to getting that, it’s something I want bad.”

Because of Lucus’ history of addiction, stipulations were made that resources be available to Lucus for substance abuse treatment while in prison, likely at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institute in Torrington.

The meth investigation began on Nov. 29, 2016, when a resident on Road 10 reported that someone had dumped garbage on his rural Powell property. Responding officers from the Park County Sheriff’s Office and, later, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, found plastic bottles containing traces of precursors to making meth. The agents also found discarded packages of decongestants and lithium batteries, which can be used in making small batches of the substance. Among the trash was mail addressed to Lucus — and his DNA was found on one of the bottles.

An informant later reported that Lucus was making methamphetamine “on a regular basis,” usually in 2 gram batches he would use or give away, DCI Special Juliet Fish wrote in a statement included in court records. The informant said Lucus sometimes had other people buy decongestants for him, Fish wrote.

Lucus’ sentencing last week covered two separate felony cases: the meth-related crime from 2016 and a felony count of obtaining more than $1,000 worth of property by false pretenses that dates back to 2012.

In that earlier case, Lucus reportedly used a stolen gas card to ring up thousands of dollars of illegal gas purchases over a two-year span. In August of 2016, he received a deferred prosecution, being sentenced to time served and placed on four years of supervised probation. Then-Deputy Park County Attorney Tim Blatt said the misuse of two company gas cards “involved several past employees,” but Lucus later agreed to pay the full $13,791.61 in restitution.

Prosecutors filed to revoke his probation after the meth case was filed — an element that Judge Simpson factored into his decision.

“All you had to do was stay clean for four years, make restitution the best you could, and that [obtaining property by false pretenses] charge would have been dismissed with prejudice,” Simpson said.

As part of a plea agreement reached between one of Lucus’ previous attorneys and Blatt, the judge did dismiss that case last week. However, Lucus still remains liable for paying for the stolen gas.

In arguing against Lucus’ request for probation, prosecutor Pojman cited details of the events leading to his arrest. By dumping the trash, Pojman said Lucus subjected the property owner to dangerous chemicals, showing a “complete disregard for others, and that’s just flat-out dangerous.” (Defense attorney Smith countered that law enforcement, after initially treating the materials as hazardous waste, determined the trash could simply be disposed of.)

Pojman also called attention to a pre-sentence investigation report that highlighted Lucus’ pattern of behavior over the years and concluded he was not a suitable candidate for probation. Substantial non-compliance with past probation conditions, lying and an unwillingness to make court-ordered financial restitution disqualifies him for probation, she said.

“And what I find most disturbing is in a discharge summary, the state wrote that ‘Josh is going to continue to do what Josh wants to do until something serious [happens] that is a wake-up call that is more painful than jail, fines and drug court,’” Pojman said. “I don’t know what’s left, your honor, other than prison.”

Letters were written to the court on Lucus’ behalf by friends and family members, and Lucus’ grandfather testified to his potential. Ultimately, the court decided on a sentence of three to five years with credit for time served. Judge Simpson said he would impose five years supervised of probation upon Lucus’ release, but it was unclear whether that would be included in the final sentencing order.

“There’s a time when we know what we’re doing, or what we’re about to do, is wrong,” Simpson said. “We either go ahead or we pull back and don’t do it, and those decisions are really hard. But you have to make them every single day. You’re beginning to make those decisions. But unfortunately, Mr. Lucus, some of those decisions you’ve made too late.”

(CJ Baker contributed reporting.)